María del Pilar Hurtado, social leader and mother of four, was shot to death in front of two of her children by two men riding a motorcycle on Friday, June 21, 2019.

In 2018 María del Pilar reported locations of forced disappearance, killings and torture that are popularly known as “casas de pique” (meaning “chopping houses”) in Cauca, where she was also a member of the victim dialogue process. This caused her to be threatened, which is why she and her family moved to Tierralta, Córdoba.

More recently, in Tierralta she was part of the leadership of a land occupation by displaced violence victims and Venezuelan migrants, where she also led the negotiation process with the mayor. A pamphlet was distributed in the community by the paramilitary group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) with direct threats to the lives of nine people. María del Pilar was referred to using demeaning gender-based language. Since then, three other people named in the pamphlet have been killed.